House Democrats Abandon Ethics

March 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas, CA), House Rules Committee Ranking Republican, today expressed his grave concern over the House Democratic agenda to deny the House Ethics Committee the resources they need to sufficiently meet the new demands put on them by the House Rules for the 110th Congress. House Resolution 202, providing for the expenses of certain committees of the House of Representatives in the 110th Congress, falls severely short of what the bipartisan leaders of the House Ethics Committee requested.

“In the opening day rules package, 430 Members voted to mandate that the Ethics Committee to take on substantial new responsibilities,” Dreier stated. “Since that time, both Ethics Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Ranking Member Doc Hastings have expressed the need for additional resources to meet those new mandates. It is imperative that we provide those resources, and this rule fails to provide the opportunity for Members to give the Ethics Committee the funding they need.”

According to the House Rules, the Ethics Committee is now responsible for pre‑approving trips, for issuing guidance on rules they were not involved in drafting, for training every employee of the House on these new ethics rules, and for providing timely advice on the application of these new rules. And on top of that, they still need to be able to investigate allegations of wrongdoing when they occur.

“It is important to also make clear that this rule self‑executes an amendment creating a new select committee and providing that entity, which will have no legislative authority, some $3.7 million over the course of this Congress,” Dreier explained. “So if we can find an additional $3.7 million to fund this new select committee, I don’t understand why we cannot find a mere $1 million to fully fund the bipartisan request of the Ethics Committee.”